Rare Left-Handed Macintosh Portable Prototype Now Available On eBay

Still got a lump of cash around after Christmas? An eBay seller has just posted a rare prototype of the first portable Macintosh for sale to the highest bidder.

As a prototype, the device has one major deviation from the Macintosh Portable that we’ve all known and loved: a left-side trackball instead of the finished unit’s right-side trackball. Considering Steve Jobs’ seeming hostility to lefties, that’s a bit of a surprise.

This Macintosh Portable prototype is externally in perfect condition, but the acid battery pack inside no longer works, preventing the prototype from powering on. Surely that’s something a resourceful enough hardware hacker could remedy though, right? Who knows what secrets still reside within?

About the author:

John Brownlee is a Contributing Editor. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.

Justin M

Every mac portable I’ve seen allows the trackball to be on the left or right, not a rare feature certainly.